Brilliant IT Podcast

I’ve been listening to podcasts since earlier this year, after a lull period of not being able to listen to my audiobooks. Being passionately involved in all things IT (although, I have to stress, that I’m Not A NerdTM), I have taken to listening to TWiT, which is pretty damn high on popular podcasts lists all over the internet. I’m not an incredibly huge fan of Leo Laporte, but have since developed an appreciation on how good a radio personality he is. TWiT isn’t incredibly technical, but has a pretty good coverage of the latest and most popular tech news stories. Plus him knowing a good crowd of influential and important people in the tech business does a lot to make me pay attention.
However, I have, over the months and countless TWiTs, developed a slight overdose of Leo and friends, especially when there are countless spinoffs and even the friends of Leo having their own podcasts, which I must say, talks about basically the same things.
For instance, Leo has his whole TWiT network. His Security Now and This Week in Law are the only other TWiT spinoffs I’m mildly interested in, others are simply a sensory (in this case, auditory) overload. His guests in TWiT itself, such as John Dvorak, Patrick Norton, Robert Heron, and others have their own podcasts or IPTV shows. And what do they talk about? More of the same.
I’ve since sampled a couple of other tech podcasts (not much, admittedly, there’s only so much time in a day when I commute), but I did discover a fabulous podcast, which is very different than TWiT, called IT Conversations. Hosted by Doug Kaye, this show is diverse, sometimes covering interviews with prominent individuals in the IT world, or recordings of talks in seminars or expos that are incredibly interesting. It was TWiT itself that introduced me to Kaye, and for that I’m incredibly grateful
I have recently finished two IT Conversations of note. One was an interview with Joel Spolsky, whose blog, Joel on Software, is one of *the* blogs for programmers, ISVs and a generally good read. This interview was fascinating to say the least, and it was wonderful listening to one of the more successful ISV operators and hear his thoughts on a variety of topics.
Another, I just finished today called What Teens Want from a Web 2.0 conference (something or other). In fact, it was this very podcast that inspired today’s post. It’s a recording of a talk in this conference where 5 teens were interviewed on what they do daily on the online world today, and what they wanted to see from companies on the forefront of Web 2.0 applications development.
The teens were generally talking about how they never buy music anymore, and how ipods, google, myspace and instant messaging are an integral part of their lives. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. It was funny and enlightening (I’m getting conscious of my superlatives now – I really wanted to say *incredibly* enlightening). The gem was probably the part where the host asked one of the teens on stage how he would spend 100 bucks online.
Host: Say you wanted to buy something online. Like a CD player.
Teen (puzzlement): A CD player?
I laughed for a long time driving home. 🙂
I won’t stop listening to TWiT, but it’s good to have an alternative listen. IT Conversations = highly recommended.

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About Me

When heroes and expectations fall, the beggar lauds the dime. When someone wants to do it all, but cannot find the time.
Suffice to say that made no sense, but nobody will mind. With time I hope to find the will, to write a better line.